Maurice Bowra

A Life

Leslie Mitchell

The first ever biography of Maurice Bowra, classicist, wit, poet, fabled raconteur, and the most famous don of his generation

Covers every aspect of Bowra's life, from soldier on the Western Front to Oxford classicist, from celebrated wit to frustrated poet

Based on a wide range of interviews and manuscript materials, much of which is published here for the first time

Maurice Bowra

A Life

Leslie Mitchell

Description

Maurice Bowra was, according to one's point of view, either the most distinguished or the most notorious Oxford don of the early twentieth century. Classicist, poet, wit, raconteur extraordinary, and Warden of Wadham College for over thirty years, he met nearly everyone of consequence in the worlds of literature and politics and had stories to tell about them all, from Jean Cocteau to Virginia Woolf, from Adolf Hitler to the Kennedys, from Isaiah Berlin to Charlie Chaplin. By force of personality and intellectual range, he influenced the thinking of almost everyone with whom he came into contact.

Above all, brought up in Edwardian England, he was able to chart the ways in which the values of his youth were tested by new democratic ideas. His experiences
allowed him to develop and employ theories of education that were startling, and which would mould the thinking of a generation of English intellectuals.

Based upon a wide range of interviews and previously unpublished manuscript material, this is the first ever biography of Bowra, and covers every aspect of his life, from soldier on the Western Front to Oxford classicist, from celebrated wit to frustrated poet manque.

Maurice Bowra

A Life

Leslie Mitchell

Author Information

Leslie Mitchell was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, and was for many years a fellow of University College. He is a specialist on the history of England and France in the eighteenth century and has written a number of acclaimed biographies, including lives of Charles James Fox, Lord Melbourne, and Bulwer Lytton.

Maurice Bowra

A Life

Leslie Mitchell

Reviews and Awards

"Mitchell's [Maurice Bowra: A Life] is a refreshingly concise and focused book on a subject with a larger-than-life correspondence and a great many connections." --Journal of British Studies